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Works Irenaeus of Lyon (130-202) Contra Haereses Against Heresies
Against Heresies: Book III
Chapter XIII--Refutation of the opinion, that Paul was the only apostle who had knowledge of the truth.

1.

With regard to those (the Marcionites) who allege that Paul alone knew the truth, and that to him the mystery was manifested by revelation, let Paul himself convict them, when he says, that one and the same God wrought in Peter for the apostolate of the circumcision, and in himself for the Gentiles. 1 Peter, therefore, was an apostle of that very God whose was also Paul; and Him whom Peter preached as God among those of the circumcision, and likewise the Son of God, did Paul [declare] also among the Gentiles. For our Lord never came to save Paul alone, nor is God so limited in means, that He should have but one apostle who knew the dispensation of His Son. And again, when Paul says, "How beautiful are the feet of those bringing glad tidings of good things, and preaching the Gospel of peace," 2 he shows clearly that it was not merely one, but there were many who used to preach the truth. And again, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, when he had recounted all those who had seen God 3 after the resurrection, he says in continuation, "But whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed," 4 acknowledging as one and the same, the preaching of all those who saw God 5 after the resurrection from the dead.


  1. Gal. ii. 8.  ↩

  2. Rom. x. 15; Isa. lii. 7.  ↩

  3. All the previous editors accept the reading Deum without remark, but Harvey argues that it must be regarded as a mistake for Dominum. He scarcely seems, however, to give sufficient weight to the quotation which immediately follows.  ↩

  4. 1 Cor. xv. 11.  ↩

  5. See note 9, p. 436.  ↩

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Against Heresies
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Introductory Note to Irenaeus Against Heresies

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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